200 student press from 100 colleges and universities in the Mindanao will come together in LANOG 2009: 7th Mndanao-wide Student Press Convention. It will be held at the Alano Regional Program and Training Center, Toril, Davao City on October 23-27, 2009. Lanog is an annual activity spearheaded by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and is aimed at increasing the competence of school publications in various fields and determining exemplary and innovative performance of campus press. Highlights of the events includes;

Awarding of the 3rd Gawad Lanog. It is awarded to outstanding student publications in Mindanao. The contest has two categories: major (tabloid, broadsheet, magazine) and minor (literary folio, website/blog, alternative form).

Seminars on Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Campus Journalism Skills Training and Workshop. A program designed to improve the skills and awareness of our young writers and artists. Mentors will be mainstream media Practitioners and Social Scientists.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) gained recognition as theoldest and the widest existing alliance of student publications in the country. It is widely considered as the center for the advancement of campus press freedom in the Philippines and even in the Asia-Pacific region. Amidst this honor, the GUILD continues to seek for excellence in the field of journalism.

Filipinos now need all the help they can get, especially those hit hardest by rampaging tropical storm Ondoy (international code name Ketsana). The storm made landfall today in Luzon, bringing endless rains and spawning huge floods in Metro Manila and many parts of Luzon.

TXTPower and Kabataan Partylist urges its members, supporters and friends abroad to make donations via Paypal. You may also donate via SmartMoney (5577-5144-1866-7103) or GCash 0926-667-7163 or 0917-975-1092. All donations coursed through the hotlines will be sent to the Philippine National Red Cross.

Volunteers are also welcome. Series of disaster relief activities will be held during the following weeks. Please leave a comment if you’re willing to help in any way.

National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) led the way and is now calling on all student councils and student publications to help with the relief drive.

Davao City—Students and youth led by Kabataan Partylist held a candle lighting ceremony in front of the Brokenshire College Friday (Sept. 18) to pay tribute to young martyrs Rebelyn Pitao, Rachelle Mae Palang, Benjaline Hernandez and other victims of extra-judicial killings by state agents.

“It has been almost 200 days since Pitao’s death but her killers are still at large, protected by no less than the 10th ID of the AFP,” lamented Kabataan Partylist spokesperson Sheena Duazo. Rebelyn Pitao, a 20-year-old substitute teacher and daughter of the NPA Commander Ka Parago, was found raped and dead last March 5 in an irrigation ditch in Barangay (village) San Isidro in Carmen, Davao Del Norte.

Kabataan also marked the 1st death anniversary of Rachelle Mae Palang, Vice President for Visayas of the College Editor’s Guild of the Philippines. Palang, a fresh nursing graduate and board passer, was killed by the Philippine Army while she conducting research at a peasant village in Sitio Langub, Barangay Malungcay Dako, Dauin, Oriental Negros. Her killing was reminiscent with that of the death of Benjaline Hernandez, a CEGP officer in Davao and human rights worker who was killed in Arakan, North Cotabato. She was 22 at the time of her death seven years ago.

We will prove our generation’s political power by gathering one million youths in realizing one united pledge. By going out to register and vote in large numbers, we will steer our government in a new direction, the direction of change.

Let us join thousands of others youths nationwide. Let us target for 1,000 in every town to reach a million new registrants by the deadline on October 15, 2009. Our responsibility is not only to individually register but to encourage other youths like us to do so as well.

Let us know how the pledge is going in YOUR town. You can send us emails, SMS, photos, videos, or post your blog entries here. Or report back to our Facebook, Friendster, Multiply, Twitter, Plurk accounts.

ABOUT 1M, 1P

We are the youth and citizens who are controlled by nobody’s agenda but our own.

1M, 1P’s mission is to engage and encourage collective youth participation and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in the country.

1M, 1P aims to engage and incite young people to register and vote in the 2010 elections through fora, community events and activities and new media. It also aims to provide young people tools to identify, learn about and take action on issues that affect the nation.

1M, 1P seeks to empower young voters who want to step up, take collective action and claim our rightful voice in the political process, and most importantly, change the way politics in the country is done.

1M, 1P will focus on three phases:

Voters’ registration campaign: The youth vote comprises almost 40 percent of the entire voting population in the country. For this year, there are an estimated five million new registrants. The Commission on Elections targets to encourage three million first time voters to register by October 15. So far, only 841, 200 have registered.

The aim is to engage the youth to help out in encouraging one million new registrants. Let us register in large numbers! 1,000 per town = 1 million by October 15.

Youth Agenda: Let us all work to educate, engage, and mobilize young people to affect change and enact policy priorities in government. Elected leaders will come to understand that our votes were just the beginning, that we also demand results and are willing to push for them in new and creative ways. Our rallying question: Mga kandidato, ano ang inyong panata sa kabataan ngayon, habang at pagkatapos ng eleksyon?

Poll-watch training and Voters’ Education on Poll Automation: There is no denying, however, that Philippine elections is one of the dirtiest and most violent in Asia and the world. Cheating and vote-buying are rampant, while other prevailing conditions make election period a highly disenfranchising experience for many voters, both young and old.

Still, elections should be a democratic process where all Filipinos can register their voice, the sanctity of the ballot honored and respected. As this country’s young generation, we demand no less.

Paul Randy Gumanao, staffwriter
ATENEWS, the official student publication of Ateneo de Davao University

Yellow has once symbolized the nation’s radiant desire for democracy and liberty from a dictatorial and fascist Marcos regime. Yellow was not just Cory’s favorite color. More than twenty years ago, it was also the country’s emblem of struggle against the oppressive Marcos administration.

Now, the nation is once again “wearing yellow” as the people grieve for the demise of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino or more popularly called “Tita Cory.” Many take this opportunity to recollect Cory’s role in ending the dark years of the tyrant and inhumane martial rule during the Marcos regime, and in helping restore the democracy of the Filipinos. The people knew how Cory hated tyranny, not just during martial law, but even in the last 18 months of her battle against an advanced stage of colon cancer. She died of cardio-respiratory attack last August 1 at the age of 76. Cory knew that the country has also been very ill with a more depressing societal cancer—an ailment manifested by injustices, extreme corruption, and greed for wealth and power, which further break down into more concretely burdening conditions like unprecedented hikes in prices of prime commodities (except galunggong), unequal distribution of wealth, acts of fascism and repression, and suffering in general.

Cory’s rule, though, was not as successful as the EDSA People Power uprising that she led. During her term, she rarely seemed to be on top of ruling the country. Her government was threatened by seven coup attempts, twenty typhoons, and eruption of Mount Pinatubo, economic instability and problems of insurgency. Being raised to a wealthy and landed Cojuangco clan in Tarlac, Aquino had to protect their family properties, including the 6400-hectare Hacienda Luisita, the country’s second largest single piece of contiguous land. Because of that, she failed to genuinely implement essential reforms like the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which has not been fully beneficial until now, and millions of peasants all over Philippines have to shed blood just to fight for their claim of a little parcel of the land that they till. Also, in her term, she passed the Automatic Appropriation Law, which “cuts” a large fraction of the annual national budget in favor of foreign debt servicing, thus, the country has less for basic social services.

“I have not always won but … I never shirked a fight,” Cory said before handing over the presidency to Fidel Ramos in 1992.

She may have been just a “housewife-turned president” and a neophyte in the political arena. But, unlike her successors, Cory was more humanitarian and democratic. It was in her term when political prisoners, including the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, were released, and endeavor for peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front was kindled. It was during Cory’s term when the 1987 Constitution was crafted and first implemented. That constitution has somehow been a product of people’s victory and democracy, the constitution made after the people’s struggle, and the very constitution that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tries to devalue through charter change to favor her minions, her foreign boss and her anti-people and selfish interests.

Despite Cory’s shortcomings as a President, she never abandoned what she believed as the essence of a leader and a mother. She had always been consistent in calling the people to act and protest whenever necessary. If to be graded according to presence, Cory hadz perfect attendance in major mobilizations against the abuses done by her successors. When Ramos attempted to extend his term in 1990, Cory brought almost half a million people to the streets to express their strong disapproval of Ramos’ plan. In 2001, during the uprising against Erap, Cory’s support to the struggling masses was undoubted. And just recently, when GMA was caught unguarded with her dirty political agenda, Cory remarked that GMA’s deed is a “shameful abuse of power!”

While many know about Cory and the Martial Law, most of this generation’s youth may not have experienced the true spirit of the People Power. Well, it is more than just tying yellow ribbons on ID straps! It is more than just an uprising against a ruling tyrant. People Power is action beyond words. It is a people’s protracted struggle to change the whole rotten system of the society.

Cory may have died, but her legacy of democracy will always be treasured. Cory knew that there is still a great battle for the people to fight for. Each one is reminded that “the Filipino is worth living and dying for.” ###

1. Entries should not be more than 300 words with the theme “Trabaho, Serbisyo, Edukasyon, Katungod, dili Charter Change!”

2. Entries can be written in English, Tagalog or Bisaya and could either be in a soft-copy or hard-copy format.

3. Soft & Hard-copy entries must be encoded in a letter-sized (8.5”x11) bond paper with your name school, year & course and organization on the upper left portion.

4. Enclose Hard-copy entries in a brown envelope with your name, school, year & course and organization at the back.

5. Deadline of submission will be on or before August 13, 2009 at the ATENEWS office, Ateneo de Davao University, Jacinto St., Davao City, Soft-copy Entries should be sent via email: cegpdavao@gmail.com

Criteria for Essay Writing:

50% – Content

25% – Grammar

20% – Originality

5% – Technique

Poetry Mechanics:

1. Entries should in line with the theme “Trabaho, Serbisyo, Edukasyon, Katungod, dili Charter Change!”

2. Entries can be written in English, Tagalog or Bisaya and could either be in a soft-copy or hard-copy format.

3. Soft & Hard-copy entries must be encoded in a letter-sized (8.5”x11) bond paper with your name school, year & course and organization on the upper left portion.

4. Enclose Hard-copy entries in a brown envelope with your name, school, year & course and organization at the back.

5. Deadline of submission will be on or before August 13, 2009 at the ATENEWS office, Ateneo de Davao University, Jacinto St., Davao City, Soft-copy Entries should be sent via email: cegpdavao@gmail.com

Blogroll

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In a symbolic action in Manila on Sept. 19, members of urban poor group Kadamay and artists' group Resbak portrayed themselves as victims of Duterte's war on drugs and burn an effigy of the president depicted as 'Night King.' The post Burning of Duterte, ‘the Night King*’ appeared first on Bulatlat.